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I just got back from a two week long visit to my parents and friends in the lovely, though rainy, Pacific Northwest. It was way too long of a visit for my liking, but I got the opportunity to teach my nine-year-old niece a little bit about fish care. Here's the back story:

My parents just moved and bought some acreage, there was a lot of garbage around the property and my mom and my niece were cleaning it up. They started to dump out this old bathtub that had been used as a water tank for goats, there was about 3 inches of ice (this was back in February) on the top and when my mom broke it off to dump the rest of the water she found a four inch goldfish. She sent my niece inside to get some fresh water in a 5 gallon bucket (they have a well, so luckily they didn't chlorine him to death). My mom didn't check the temp of the water my niece brought until after they put the fish in, he went from water somewhere around 32 F to about 65 F. . . and survived that. I mean, it is a goldfish and at that size they're pretty tough. My niece wanted to keep him, so my mom had her use her own money to get him set up. That means they bought a one gallon bowl.

Fast forward to my visit which started on April 4th: My mom and my niece said they changed the water everyday, my dad quietly shook his head in the background when they answered. In the first two days I was there his water wasn't changed once. I tried talking to my mom and said that he really needed a tank with a filter and she replied that a friend of hers was going to bring over a ten gallon for her so that my niece could use it and add a few more fish. When I told them that wasn't big enough, and especially not for more than one fish, my dad agreed and my mom sighed and said "he's just a goldfish and he was living in about 2 inches of water under 3 inches of ice." I explained how that happens and that now he's at room temp and is eating etc. My dad agreed with me and said that he needed a pond outside or a 50 gallon tank, minimum. I agreed with my dad and my mom disagreed and got upset. I wanted to go to a Goodwill and see if I could find a cheap tank and set it up, but my mom wouldn't give me a location that I could put one in. . . So, getting frustrated I went to sit outside to read and saw that they still had the 30 gallon plant pot that I had bought a few years back to make my niece a fairy garden. The fairy garden had since been thrown out, but the pot was still around AND the holes hadn't been drilled for drainage. I decided on setting it up and using it for Mikey (what my niece named the goldfish, since he is orange like Michelango from TMNT) as a temporary pond.

I drove around the next day to some of the local garden stores, hoping to find pond plants. I couldn't find any and didn't want to drive the full size Dodge Ram 50 miles one way to the shop I knew had them, however, there were a ton of fake plants that had been left behind! So, I scrubbed the bejeezes out of the bucket with hot water and then filled it up with water from the hose outside. I started drip acclimating him from the bowl to the temp of his new home, and while I did that boiled the fake plants since they had been outside for who knows how long. After about two hours I decided he had acclimated to the new temp and I put him in. I have to say, 10 days later, when I left, he looked pretty healthy and fat in his new home. I explained to my niece about the nitrogen cycle, and why extra water is important and what normal fish behaviour is. My mom had her convinced that him darting back and forth in his bowl was normal behaviour, because he was active. SMH. So, anyway that was my good deed while home here he is before and after. It's still not big enough, but is so much better than what he had before.

Before: This is the picture they sent me and it was just as cloudy when I got there. . .

It hadn't been taken to the dump yet and I had that idea myself, but my mom was strictly against it. No matter how I suggest using it "its an eyesore." So, I had to let it go. Shame too as it was actually a pretty solid tub, not those cheap plastic ones. Its actually nicer than the ones in the house lol.